Even Nerds Can Have Fun
But it's not what you'd expect

Joy Walter

Dousing yourself with foam at a frat party. Losing three rounds of beer pong. A rave at a friends’ apartment. Getting caught making out with your girlfriend in the back seats of the Wells Hall “movie theater.”

These are all fairly normal and expected things for MSU students to be found doing on a Thursday or Friday night. However, stroll down the halls of a Honors floor, and you’ll find an entirely different scene. 

Laughter resonates off the walls of the Mason/Abbott basement, mixed with the sounds of a ticking Catchphrase buzzer and the whirls and zaps of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game that’s older than most students in college.

“No come on, guys, it’s—it’s hot grabs!” screams Mike, trying to get April to guess the word “oven mitt” before the alarm goes off and the round is over. After countless rounds of this addicting game, the group moves over to the couches to watch Michael J. Fox gallivanting around wearing exceedingly short shorts in the ultimate nerd movie—“Back to the Future.” As the movie goes on some of the group get tired and trudge up to bed, promising to meet up for breakfast in the morning well rested.

And this isn’t a one-time thing. Almost every weekend-and occasionally even gasp! on school nights, Honors kids come together to watch Spaceballs, play Halo and wild games such as Apples to Apples or Cranium. And once they’ve exhausted these forms of entertainment, they start making up their own games.

My upstairs neighbors Justin and Paul have invented “Penguin Ball,” which involves tossing Justin’s stuffed penguin back and forth over the loft bars, and includes a set of terms made up specifically for what happens in the game.

Not everyone comes easily to these outrageous evenings in, however. Sometimes students literally drag friends away from Honors Chemistry, Philosophy or Differential Equations homework, convincing them that Plato can wait and plutonium will still be reacting the same way when they get back a few hours later.

They usually end up coming and diving into their creative sides with Pictionary or even getting in touch with their inner-rhythm—just watch them swing dance.  Sometimes they even get a little rebellious—bowling in the hall or attempting to pop popcorn in the dryers downstairs, completely sober. 

Maybe they don’t end up with crazy of stories or meet as many people, but these kids are creative in what they do and have a great time doing it.

The next time you’re bored on a “thirsty Thursday” night, try stopping by an Honors floor or just listen for the sounds of a Star Wars soundtrack blasting from a pimped out laptop. You may even be able to squeeze into a few games of MarioKart.